Ecstatic Music Fest 2012

From Kaufman Center:

The “mesmerizing” (New Yorker) multi-instrumentalist and composer Sxip Shirey (pictured) teams up with Angélica Negrón, composer of “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR) music for an evening of fabulously eclectic and sonically wide-ranging collaboration. In addition to working together, they will be joined by a slate of special guests, including violinist/composer/Ableton master Todd Reynolds, guitar sound-architect Noveller (“simultaneously soothing and mind-wrecking,” NY Press), the wine-glass/guitar marvel Jonny Rodgers (“beautiful, fragile and consistently challenging,” New Haven Register). The teen alt-classical sensations Face the Music (“stunning,” “polished, exuberant,” New York Times) will give the world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s El Gran Caleidoscopio.

So excited to be part of this festival and to be working with such wonderful musicians. Please get your tickets here: http://kaufman-center.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-festival-sxip-shirey-and-angelica-negron-with-special-guests

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TOY TOY TOY!

The  UnCaged Festival is coming up! We will be hopping around New York City in a three-day extravaganza celebrating all things toy. I will be singing three songs for voice and toys on Tuesday November 29th during the Playhouse at Dixon.  Also performing that night are my friends Matt Evans, Phyllis Chen and toy piano legend Margaret Leng Tan.  On Saturday December 3rd come to the wonderful Toy Bonanza at Dimenna Center where Phyllis Chen, the festival founder,  will be performing my piece “The Little Things” among other great performers including Miguel Frasconi & Takuji Kawai.

I’m also very excited to announce that I’ll be part of Ecstatic Music Fest 2012.  I’ll be collaborating with multi-instrumentalist and composer Sxip Shirey and also with guitar sound-architect Noveller.  I’ll write more about these collaborations in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!

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Balún, Arturo en el Barco, Y No Había Luz & áltaVoz @ El Museo

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a very exciting project along with Composers Now and El Museo del Barrio.  Next Wednesday February 23rd, the project will finally come to life with a very busy day full of live visuals, masks, puppets and tons of great music!  First stop is a fun Balún interactive concert for the whole family titled “Painting With Sounds”.  Throughout the concert the audience will have the opportunity to play instruments and sing alongside the band and there will be awesome live visuals accompanying the music!

During the evening, Arturo en el Barco will be playing selections from Alejandro in a very special collaboration with Julio Morales from my favorite Puerto Rican theater company Y No Había Luz.  The other half of the program will be pieces by Latin American composers from the áltaVoz collective which includes composers Mauricio Pauly, José Luis Hurtado, Jorge Grossman, Felipe Lara & Pedro Malpica.  The performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artists.

For more info on the Balún show during the morning please visit here.

For more info on the evening show with Arturo en el Barco and áltaVoz visit here.

Both shows are free! You just need to RSVP here.

Hope to see you there!

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A little noise

October is gone and the sunny days are now an island away! November is off to a great start and I’m happy to announce I’m Q2′s Featured Composer of the month! You can read my composer profile and artist statement here.

Last Friday was the release party of janus trio’s new album “i am not” out on New Amsterdam Records which includes my piece Drawings for Meyoko.  The girls played beautifully as always and the night had an indescribable magic in the air that’s hard put into words. I’m really excited about this album which you can now pre-order here.

This upcoming Thursday, I’ll be performing at Nabi Gallery as part of the Encore Music Forum’s series. I’ll be performing selections from my album Alejandro in this all-electronic/computer music event which will also feature music by Luke DuBois, Linda Oh (with Ambrose Akinmusire, Fabian Almazan, Henry Cole, and more) and Yael Acher.

Also, on Tuesday November 16th Arturo en el Barco will be performing at the gorgeous St. Peter’s Church selections from Let the Sun Sine On Me and Make Me Feel Special which you can download for free at our bandcamp. This is the last time, for a while, that we’ll be performing these pieces because after this the group will be focusing on new songs which will also include our newest addition to the ensemble, pianist/toy pianist/toy instruments extraordinaire Phyllis Chen.  This concert is going to be lots of fun since we will be sharing the stage with our good friends from Iktus Percussion Quartet and at the end both groups will join forces for Rzewski’s Coming Together!

And one last thing, I made my first pumpkin pie yesterday and it wasn’t a disaster!! it was actually pretty yummy! :)

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